A small urban forest on City Hall Square

The department for Technical and Environmental Affairs just approved the plans for the new City Hall Square. The Dragon Fountain will move to the center and return to its former glory, with a wider pool. Bikes get a new set of lanes and we get at small forest of sixty new trees.

Now we just hope that the trees get the space they need to thrive and survive, including the space below. In the municipality of Frederiksberg they have paid extra by the metro stations to create enough space below for the trees to grow big. Here's hoping the City of Copenhagen will do the same, so our young urban forest get the chance to survive.

It is such a positive development, that the urban nature is a part of the considerations now. Thank you so much for that.

Link to the article in Lorry (Danish): here. 

Alert in parks and forests!

We need to be very aware right now: The government wants to weaken the Forest Protection Act, by making it easier to build and develop in forests and parks. A proposal related to allowing for building along the coast line, a matter of making a profit on our precious shared nature.

A suggested change in the governments "Change of Forest Act" goes: "The Forest Act must not stand in the way of urban development or that of development in recreational areas".

We already know how much urban development are eating away at our nature as it is, only the park trees are really under any kind of protection, and that is about to disappear. This can't happen! We need to take care of our trees in forests and parks as well as those along the roads. They are vital to our survival.

A recent example of how important the Forest Protection Act is even in the city, is the new "Flying Carpet" on Israels Plads. Here the architects fantasized about letting the square eat a large chunk of the adjoining park, Ørstedsparken. This was minimized by the Danish Society of Nature Conservation, who fought to incorporate some of the biggest trees in the design. This was possible by adding a couple of large curves at the end. Had the architects had their way, as the government now plan for, these trees would not have been around today.

Just look at our old Ørstedsparken trees, in their glorious fall costume.

Read more about the proposal here (link). (In Danish, but you can always use google translate)
The petition for the Forest Protection Act here (link).